When the subject of off grid living comes up, an entire series of question marks tend to fill people's minds. "What do you use for light?" "How can you live without air conditioning?" "How do you make coffee?" There are so many questions. But if I had to pick just one question that sticks out above the rest as particularly troublesome and even worrisome to women, it would be: "How do you do laundry?"
The realization that clothes might have to be washed by hand can result in instilling horror into the heart of any woman. She pictures endless mountains of clothes piling up day after day without end. Even with her trusty washing machine and dryer, she has difficulty keeping the piles at bay. How in the world could she possibly turn the tide by washing them by hand?! She imagines spending grueling hours of scrubbing and wringing, only to see her hard labor rewarded with...more dirty clothes! It's like a bad dream. The laundry basket is as full as it was that morning. She envisions herself climbing a mountain that keeps getting steeper and higher with every step. "Impossible," she says. "No way!" "I will never wash clothes by hand!"
Ha! I have to admit that I had fun writing that. It was a little therapeutic. After almost five years of washing my family's clothes by hand, I have felt some of those things. I wouldn't be honest if I didn't admit to dreaming about a washing machine a time or two. But what is astonishing to me is the genuine disbelief and bewilderment that the subject of off grid laundry inspires. For some reason, laundry is a loathsome task. It is repeatedly among the most common topics of questions that I get about my off grid lifestyle.
I can definitely say that my own view of laundry has changed over the past five years. In some ways it has actually become less of a chore than it was when I used a washer and dryer. Gasp! I'll give you a moment to pick your mouth up off the floor. Did I really say that? How could it possibly be less of a chore? Please bear with me and suspend your disbelief while I explain. Sometimes it's even hard for me to believe that I have come so far as to actually be able to say that doing laundry by hand has become a completely manageable chore. Let me share with you a few reasons why it's really not so bad.
1. Wear It Again, Sam
Without a washer and dryer, I have seen the freedom that comes from being forced to manage the clothing we wear in a more productive way. Put simply, we wear our clothes multiple times! I have learned that it is not a very wise or self-sufficient use of resources (whether it happens to be your time or electricity) to be constantly washing clothes that aren't even dirty. If you find one take away from this article, I hope this is it: Make sure your clothes are dirty before you wash them. That's it. It's really simple. This one little rule can reduce your laundry immensely. I imagine that at this moment, your laundry basket contains a number of only very mildly dirty clothes because you are used to wearing them once and discarding them. I've done it too. But I have now changed my ways and I have less laundry as a result. (For those of you who are turning up your nose right now, please keep in mind that clean shirts are allowed and even encouraged every day throughout the summer. In addition to this, socks are only allowed to be worn one full day. Saving on laundry is just not worth smelling stinky clothes all day. I love my family, but I don't want to smell them. That's just gross!)
2. My Personal Laundromat
One of the most magical things about washing clothes by hand is that I don't have to do one load at a time. If I have more dirty clothes, I just fill another bucket or tote. It's just like having multiple machines. Well...almost. Just work with me here! A washing machine actually seems kind of limiting to me because it can only perform one load at a time. But what if you have a small load of delicates or whites that need to be separated? How often have you ruined something by succumbing to the temptation to throw them in with everything else? I don't have that problem. I can separate to my heart's content and it doesn't take any longer. With my current system, I do three loads at one time. I just fill all my tubs and plastic totes. The clothes soak as I rotate my effort through the tubs using my "Breathing Mobile Washer". Then it's time to wring them, rinse, wring again, and hang to dry. I am literally my own laundromat.
3. Free at Last
I do my laundry for free. I love the sound of that. I am my own laundromat, but it doesn't cost me a cent. Let's go through the checklist, shall we?
- Free manpower...err...womanpower. Yep, got it!
- Free rain water collected from my roof. Absolutely, gotta love the free water from the sky.
- Free sunshine. Drying clothes, lifting a dreary mood, growing food in the garden, powering solar panels. Our sun is a marvelous thing.
Doing laundry by hand fulfills my inner desire to accomplish a job using my own resources. I don't have to rely on the services of an electric company that I would pay for. I don't have a washing machine and dryer that could break. I don't need a water facility to send clean water through my pipes. I have everything I need at my fingertips to get my family's clothes clean. That's pretty amazing when you think about it!
4. Feel the Burn
Up to this point, I haven't dwelt on the work part of laundry. Yes, it is work. But I think we need a little perspective here. We are told over and over again that we need more exercise. We can't get away from the message. It's preached to us by our doctors, the media, our in-shape friends, and even by spam in our in-boxes. So, we get on the treadmill or force ourselves to walk around the block. I'm all for that, if that's your thing. But for the rest of us, exercise can be a dirty word. If you are like me, you hate to do meaningless work. And that's what exercise is. It's work. So, instead of spinning my wheels on a treadmill, I do the laundry. Instead of lifting weights, I carry my heavy basket of wet clothes to the clothesline. That has a purpose and it's a lot more fulfilling. There is no "quitting the gym". I have to do it or I can say goodbye to clean underwear. It's a fool-proof exercise program.
So, what do you think? Does off grid laundry sound like a bad dream? Or does it sound inspiring? Would you ever consider it? I hope that now you understand why I do it and why I have stuck with it these five years. I'm really not putting myself through drudgery every day.
I'm living my off grid dream.
Off Grid Laundry Station Video
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Jaimie is a writer and vlogger for AnAmericanHomestead
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